2008 Woodie Awards
RIAA lawsuits
Roman Ostrovsky
Issue date: 9/7/07 Section: Campus News
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New technology has often met opposition when it allows for the duplication of intellectual property as illustrated in numerous lawsuits such as the 1979 Supreme Court case of Universal City Studios vs Sony Corp over the distribution of VCR's, in which the legality of the ability of the VCR to record copyrighted movies and TV programs was called into question. In this lawsuit and others since, the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the new devices citing their capability of substantial non-infringing uses.
The latest technology, the ability to share intellectual property over the internet, became a national issue when the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) sued Napster for copyright infringement. Cary Sherman, a senior executive vice president at the RIAA, was quoted at the time as saying "Napster is about facilitating piracy, and trying to build a business on the backs of artists and copyright owners." While the RIAA was successful in July 2001 of forcing the shutdown of Napster the issue of electronic piracy did not go away.
This time however the RIAA wants universities to cooperate with them wrote Timothy B. Lee of Ars Technica, an online publication on technological news. He wrote "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid proposed an amendment to the Higher Education Act that would have required schools with large numbers of file-sharing complaints to report to the federal government on their anti-piracy efforts and to implement 'a technology-based deterrent to prevent the illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property.'" The RIAA pushed hard for this to pass but the amendment was shelved for the time being after universities complained of the costs associated with carrying out such a task.
Not all schools are content with waiting for a nationwide set of laws to govern the file-sharing taking place on campuses. Stanford University, listed on the top 25 list of music-sharing sites as reported by Ars Technica, decided to take a stricter stance towards illegal downloads. Eric Bangeman of Ars Technica has confirmed that Stanford has initiated a three-strike style rule with higher punishments for each separate infraction that finally culminates in the termination of a student's internet access. This is viewed as necessary by the school as "it takes almost three full-time employees to stay on top of the number of complaints" by the RIAA.
The latest technology, the ability to share intellectual property over the internet, became a national issue when the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) sued Napster for copyright infringement. Cary Sherman, a senior executive vice president at the RIAA, was quoted at the time as saying "Napster is about facilitating piracy, and trying to build a business on the backs of artists and copyright owners." While the RIAA was successful in July 2001 of forcing the shutdown of Napster the issue of electronic piracy did not go away.
This time however the RIAA wants universities to cooperate with them wrote Timothy B. Lee of Ars Technica, an online publication on technological news. He wrote "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid proposed an amendment to the Higher Education Act that would have required schools with large numbers of file-sharing complaints to report to the federal government on their anti-piracy efforts and to implement 'a technology-based deterrent to prevent the illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property.'" The RIAA pushed hard for this to pass but the amendment was shelved for the time being after universities complained of the costs associated with carrying out such a task.
Not all schools are content with waiting for a nationwide set of laws to govern the file-sharing taking place on campuses. Stanford University, listed on the top 25 list of music-sharing sites as reported by Ars Technica, decided to take a stricter stance towards illegal downloads. Eric Bangeman of Ars Technica has confirmed that Stanford has initiated a three-strike style rule with higher punishments for each separate infraction that finally culminates in the termination of a student's internet access. This is viewed as necessary by the school as "it takes almost three full-time employees to stay on top of the number of complaints" by the RIAA.